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For years, America’s schoolchildren have been eating beef, chicken and other foods that would have been rejected as substandard even by fast food chains. Thanks in part to our advocacy, the U.S.D.A. has stopped buying such low-quality meat for school lunches.

This year, the federal health care reforms that U.S. PIRG worked to win have started to pay off for young people. In the past, teens saw their premiums soar or were denied coverage when they turned 19, even if they’d been insured their whole lives. Now, they can remain on their parents’ plans until age 26.

U.S. PIRG helped to pass the FDA Food Modernization Act, which strenthened the Food and Drug Administration's authority to monitor food safety. This bill strengthened the FDA's food safety program for the first time in 70 years. The bill was stuck in Congress for over a year until U.S. PIRG and the State PIRGs organized a public outreach campaign, speaking with more than 300,000 people about the issue.

U.S. PIRG’s campaign to win historic Wall Street Reform was recognized by The Hill newspaper as one of the Top 10 lobbying victories of 2010, which wrote that, “[c]onsumer advocacy groups like the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Consumer Federation of America won big with the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.” In addition, we worked to ensure the confirmation of Richard Cordray as director of the CFPB, ensuring that the new agency had the power to carry out its mission.

Credit card companies seeking even higher profits have invented a slew of unfair practices. U.S. PIRG played a crucial role in passing the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which protects consumers and reins in the credit card companies' most abusive fees and practices.